BRACKET | TOURNAMENT TEAM | DAY 1 WIN-LOSS | DAY 1 TOTAL PINS

ALTOONA, Pa. (Dec. 4, 2010) – It was a historic day for Saint Francis athletics, as the Saint Francis women's bowling team posted a 4-1 record – including a win over a nationally-ranked conference opponent – at the first ever Red Flash Invitational in Altoona.

Competing in front of a large partisan crowd at what is officially the first-ever home women's bowling event in Red Flash history, the Red Flash rolled their way to four wins and just one tight loss, and earned the third seed in the Baker format tournament that will determine the Invitational's champion.

“Of all the good days that we've had, this has been by far the best, both because of our performance on the lanes and because we are proud to have hosted a quality event in our inaugural season,” said Red Flash head bowling coach Tom Falbo. “The people at Holiday Bowl have been absolutely tireless in their help and their support in making this event possible.”

“On behalf of Saint Francis University, we wish to extend our sincere thanks to them for making this happen.”

The Red Flash women opened up their first-ever home event with a bang; the first official home frame for the Flash was a three-pin spare from Heidi Baumert (Lincoln, Neb./Pius X) (Lincoln, Neb./Pius X), and the first official home game ended with Saint Francis defeating the Penn-State Altoona Lions 832 – 685. Christina Medley (Altoona, PA/Altoona Area) (Altoona, Pa./Altoona) opened the game with five straight strikes, posting a team-high 209 in the win.

The momentum carried on against the Medaille Mavericks. The Flash started with a slight deficit early on, but Saint Francis rebounded against Medaille on the strength of Marissa Matassa (Plum, Pa./Plum Senior)'s (Verona, Pa./Plum Senior) strong match. Matassa, SFU's first-ever Northeast Conference Bowler of the Week winner, rolled a game-high 212 in the 881-780 victory.

In the third game, the Red Flash posted a strong rally in the ninth frame, recording four strikes and one spare in five frames, but were unable to overcome a strong tenth from the Adrian Bulldogs as Saint Francis fell 854-847. The Flash held the slight lead going into the final stanza, but a pair of tough splits after strikes put SFU behind the eight-ball. The Bulldogs countered with marks and just eked out the win. Jessica Henri (Howell, N.J./Howell) (Howell, N.J./Howell) had the high score for Saint Francis with 196.

In the fourth game, the Red Flash recorded their most important win of the day, defeating nationally-ranked Kutztown 836-773. Matassa threw a game-high 207 against the #9 Golden Bears, including a clutch turkey spread over the final three frames to pile on the points. The win moved the Red Flash into third place on the day in total pins.

“Our match with Kutztown was our toughest pair of the day,” said Falbo. “We saw the oil transition [one the lanes] early and made adjustments from the third frame to the very end of the game. We made quality shots in the latter part of the game which not only enabled used to sustain the lead but grow the lead to the very last frame.”

The Flash wrapped up their competition day with another important victory, this time dropping SUNY-IT 830-785. The win allowed the Red Flash to maintain their spot as the third-place team in terms of total pins, just 16 pins behind second-place Adrian. Marissa Matassa (Plum, Pa./Plum Senior) threw her third 200+ pin game of the day, hitting the 200-pin mark right on the nose to lead her team to the win. Matassa finished the day ranked fifth overall in total pins, averaging 188.2 pins per game.

The Red Flash will begin the second at 8:30 a.m. at Holiday Bowl against Penn State – Altoona, whom they defeated on Saturday.